Apa Sherpa, in full Lhakpa Tenzing Sherpa, Apa also spelled Appa (born c. 1960, Thami, Nepal) Nepali mountaineer and guide who was best known for having achieved the most ascents of Mount Everest.

Apa Sherpa.

Jerry Mika

Apa was raised in the small village of Thami (or Thame) in the Khumbu valley of far northern Nepal, just west of Mount Everest. The area is well known for its Sherpas (ethnic Nepalis, Tibetans, and Sikkimese who serve as porters and guides on expeditions in the Himalayas), including famed climber Tenzing Norgay, who once lived in Thami. Apa’s family, like most in the region, was extremely poor. His father was a herdsman who died when Apa was about 12 years old. Apa, being the oldest child, left school and began carrying supplies for trekking parties in the area to help support his family. He quickly impressed his employers with his ability to haul large loads (despite his small size) and his cheerful disposition. One of his European patrons sponsored his enrollment at the Himalayan Trust School (established by Everest climbing pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary) in Khumjung, near Thami. However, the family’s circumstances forced Apa to leave school after a couple of years and return to his porter job.

In 1985 he joined his first major mountaineering expedition, to Annapurna, where he worked as a cook, and he returned to that mountain as a porter in 1987. Apa began working on Everest trips in 1988, participating in several unsuccessful summit attempts over the next two years. He finally reached the top in May 1990, when he joined a New Zealand expedition with other first-time summiters Peter Hillary (son of Sir Edmund) and Rob Hall (who became a leader of expeditions on Everest, including an ill-fated trip in 1996).

For the next two-plus decades, Apa embarked on an almost unbroken string of annual ascents up Everest that included two successful climbs in 1992. In only two years did he not reach the summit: in 1996, when he made no climbs, and in 2001, when the attempt was abandoned because of bad weather. In 2000, with his 11th trip to the top, he broke the record for the most Everest summits, and he then established a new record with each successive climb.

Mountaineer Apa Sherpa on the summit of Mount Everest, 2009.

Mingma Sherpa

Apa joined the first Eco Everest Expedition in 2008 and participated in subsequent years. Each of these trips, in addition to a summit climb, focused on publicizing ecological and climate-change issues affecting Everest—notably, the accelerated melting of the giant Khumbu Icefall near the mountain’s base. The expeditions employed ecologically friendly practices (e.g., the use of solar cookers) and collected and took down tons of trash and camping and climbing gear left behind by earlier expeditions. Apa’s climb in May 2010 was especially notable because it was his 20th successful Everest ascent. A year later, in May 2011, he completed his 21st summit. Later that year he announced his retirement from high-altitude climbing, but he stayed active in the Himalayas. In January–April 2012 he participated in a 99-day trek through that range to publicize concerns about climate change in the region.

Mountaineer Apa Sherpa climbing through the Khumbu Icefall en route to his 20th ascent of the …

In 2006 Apa and his family moved to the United States to give his children educational opportunities that he had missed. However, he still wished to help his native Thami, and in 2010 he established the Apa Sherpa Foundation to further educational and economic oppportunities there and elsewhere in the region.

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in Mount Everest

...Gelu, with Lakpa summiting in just 10 hours 56 minutes. Not to be outdone, Pemba returned the next year and reached the top in 8 hours 10 minutes. Perhaps as remarkable were the achievements of Apa Sherpa. In 2000 he reached the summit for a record 11th time, and he continued to break his own mark in succeeding years. Beginning in 2008, Apa’s summit climbs were undertaken as a member of the...

mountain on the crest of the Great Himalayas of southern Asia that lies on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, at 27°59′ N 86°56′ E. Reaching an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 metres), Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world,...

group of some 50,000 mountain-dwelling people of Nepal; Sikkim state, India; and Tibet (China); they are related to the Bhutia. Small groups of Sherpas also live in parts of North America, Australia, and Europe. Sherpas are of Tibetan culture and descent and speak a Tibetan language divergent from...